there is a short story called an occurrence at owl creek bridge, in which we meet a character who is doomed to die by being hanged on a bridge. we watch him escape and reunite with his beloved family, live happily with them -- and then we are back to the bridge, where his neck has just snapped from being hanged. the whole second part of the story -- his reunion with his family -- was in the split second before he died, it did not actually occur. or it did, but on another plane of being -- not in our perception of reality.

this helped me sort of accept the end of the finale. so maybe the flash sideways was in that split second before jack died, maybe it never happened, or maybe it was... something else. some other plane of being, not existing in our perception of reality. you can call it purgatory, you can call it the eightfold path or rebirth in buddhism, but many faiths have an idea of going through levels of living (or suffering, as in buddhism all life is suffering) until you achieve enlightenment and thus may move on.

on this show, we have watched the characters have many lives -- in flashbacks, flashforwards, flash sideways, island time, island-traveling-in-time time -- and each one carried different consequences, choices, sacrifices, questions of faith.

in the final flash-world we were given -- the flash sideways -- the characters were once again confronted with choices and with each other -- and, finally, they seemed to have achieved enlightenment once achieving their "purpose", whatever that was for each character. for most, it seemed to be reuniting with their love (more often than not, one or both had died an untimely death, and thus they could only be reunited in the afterlife); for some their purpose was the island itself as in locke's and jack's enlightenment, rather poignantly so that it was the two of them.

no, the island was not purgatory. and yes, i still have many questions about that world we were shown with a heavy-handed end. i honestly would have accepted every single thing that happened had we not seen that awful jack/christian exchange in the church/synagogue/temple thing. all i would have needed to follow the show all the way through was an empty coffin -- jack has his flash with it -- he goes into the church, embraces kate and everyone else -- they sit down all together -- and it fills with light as jack's eye closes on the island. it would have still been poetic, question-raising, controversial, but it would not have been heavy-handed. christian's speech was a little too grover's corners for my taste. just let it be.

but, as i've said before and as the say on the island -- whatever happened, happened. we can't change the finale, that is what they chose to show us. and i do find it extremely interesting that the questions many people are raising about those final five minutes are, in essence, questions of if they themselves are a man of science or a man of faith.

i am not disappointed, i enjoyed every moment sans that christian speech at the end. i just wish, as LOST so often has in the past, that they trusted the audience's intelligence enough not to hit us over the head with a message like they did in the end.

however you viewed the ending, i hope you enjoyed yourself as much as i did.

and, as LOST has achieved time and time again, i am sure we will be talking about the finale for a very, very long time.

Saturday, 22 May 2010

the end is not near, it's here. tomorrow night six years of faithful LOST-watching comes to an end. six years filled with some of the best moments in tv history. six years of characters we feel like we know better than some of our facebook friends. i was trying to think about how i felt when SATC ended. i think i was sad, but so happy that those characters had entered my life and that i could come back to them at any time. although i don't think LOST is the sort of show that i'd just want to pick up and watch a random episode of again (save, of course, the constant.)

yes, i was angry about across the sea, but not for the same reasons as daniel or even emily's husband, i was angry because the mythology of the island needed to remain mysterious. what i had concocted in my head about the island and those two powerful men was far more interesting than allison janney telling jacob to protect a light. i was ok with those aspects of the show remaining mysterious. i wanted more time for the reason we watch the show: the characters. they introduced such an interesting plot line with desmond and his "unique resistance to electromagnetism" -- i know he will be a central focus of the finale, but i don't want it to feel rushed. desmond, our man, desmond, who pushed the button, crossed the world and crossed time for love -- he deserves our time and attention.

it also seems like so many things that had been built up over the seasons (ben and widmore being banished from the island, the whole history of the dharma initiative and its importance, the numbers, etc.) seem to have been built up for nothing -- left as a mere detour on the eventual road to the LOST equivalent of the battle between the jedi force and the dark side.

and don't even get me started on the disability narrative (locke wanting to be "fixed" in the parallel universe) -- at least its not as sorry as GLEE's (artie's and sue's sister's stories. but that's a whole other blog entry in itself.)

in spite of my feelings about that episode, or even about what they died for, i am willing to forgive and forget and look forward to tomorrow night.

i am not one of those who will judge the entire series based on what happens tomorrow night, after all it is just one episode. i'm also not expecting it to end with everything neatly wrapped up (like how it would end if it were a sitcom or LOST re-enacted by cats in 1 minute) and unless they pull a st. elsewhere, i'm fairly certain i won't be throwing things at the tv. despite what does or doesn't happen tomorrow night, the past six years have been a wild ride. and, of course - whatever happened, happened.

as for the show... i'm not sure i can forgive it. sure, they reintroduced my favorite character at the very end of this week's episode, but the fact that sun and jin have STILL not seen each other makes my heart ache... and my mind say "come on already..."

as for my predictions for the denouement of the series? it seems too obvious to be good/true:

a final good vs. evil showdown with team jacob vs. team man in black/not-locke.

sun/jin reunion.

a reveal of desmond's greater importance/why he was brought to the island. (i'm with you on that one, daniel.)

the candidate will be chosen and will have to now protect the island... unless all of the candidates band together to protect together.... (or some. like a couple choosing to stay and protect together. desmond/penny, jack/kate, sun/jin, etc.)

of course i fear that many integral plot lines will remain untied up, but i hope that the season gives us a finale fitting to such a phenomenal series. i think they will - i still have faith.

Sunday, 31 January 2010

well here we are, standing on the precipice of the final season of lost. what can we expect? what should we be afraid of? how many things will remain unresolved?

i think i am going to approach this last season of lost the same way i approached the final harry potter book: hope for the best, anticipate the worst, and make sure my theories are publicized so that i can feel awesome when i am right. (this also held true for my theories about the sex and the city movie, but i'm not even attempting to decipher the possible "plot" of the sequel.)

so - back to lost.

season 6 theories:

the entire original cast will be back. or at least the ones who aren't currently working on some other more lucrative project.

we will be back to pre- and/or during crash time. but the characters that have time traveled will have the knowledge of all that has come after them.

the time travel plot will still have many holes and not quite make sense with all we've learned about the space time continuum.

charlie won't die this time.

jacob will become creepier, but perhaps more vague rather than more well-defined.

desmond better have some major plotlines. (this is more of a hope than a theory.)

john locke will mess something major up and then save all or most of the survivors, or will be martyred.

kate will have to choose between sawyer and jack for once and for all. (again, more of a hope than a theory.)

SUN AND JIN WILL BE REUNITED!!!!!!

there will be some major reveals that none of us were expecting.

as of right now, those are the theories i am working with. (please feel free to comment yours, or thoughts about/corrections to mine!)

as for that other show that i write about sometimes. (yes, you, gossip girl.) i think i may be officially over it. we didn't even get a christmas episode this year AND we have to wait till march for any more mediocre/unfathomably unbelievable action. so boo.

shows that have filled the gossip girl naughty pleasure void:

mad men (give me some chain-smoking, martini drinking chauvinists and some sexy period costumes any day.)

true blood (this show doesn't get all victorian about vampire/human relations. or human/human relations, for that matter.)

Monday, 12 October 2009

i know, c&b, this season has been trying. i can tell you feel the same way because of those pained looks on your faces. between the odd b-list celebrity cameos and the seemingly endlessly muddied/vague plot lines, it seemed like josh schwartz had finally lost touch with his audience and the show was destined to do as most shows do when the cast goes to college: epic fail. but with this week's episode's fabulous outfits, lack of aforementioned b-list celebs, quick plot tie-ups and chuck/blair massage bedroom scene, things are looking up.

i'm too tired for a realer/faker tally, but i'm sure the folks at the daily intel will have a more than sufficient list up tomorrow. enjoy!

Monday, 18 May 2009

after a very long hiatus (i'm sorry, i was in 4 shows and had to graduate from college, and unlike serena i HAD to wear my damn cap.) the blogger is back for the season finales of lost and gossip girl. ok, here goes...

ohh, jj abrams how you tease. i think i'll list what was positive (+) and what was negative (-) about this season finale... and what made me go WTF. (?)+ meeting jacob, omg THANK YOU.- he appears to just be some dude who likes eating fish?? who is the guy who wants to kill jacob?+ BERNARD AND ROSE ARE BACK!+ jacob visiting everyone at integral moments in their lives.- i miss desmond.+ bye bye juliet.? john locke's corpse? then who the hell is the guy we've been following?? can jacob really be killed that easily?--/??? um... the last moment? this feels like the last moment of season 1, and we all know the fan backlash that resulted from that. (even the nytimes was peeved.)

of course they can't give too much away, they've still got a season to go, but come on. we've been such loyal fans, we deserve some answers.

predictions about next season:

i've been giving this a lot of thought and i honestly have no idea. if the bomb worked then i'm not sure if they'll be on the island in modern time or if they'll be on the plane or what. if they were on the island, then there would be all sorts of conflicts with locke/fake locke and jacob and richard and the new survivors and all that jazz. this is pretty basic, i hope it isn't that easy. i just don't know what they would do if the flight landed safely in LA. so help me if sun and jin don't have a reunion within the first three episodes, i might just burst.

and now for gg. any non-believers in the church of OMFG must have not been watching the final moments of this sesason's gossip girl finale, because i think it would bring a tear to even the most cynical eye.

realer than blair's prom dress being ruined at the cleaners and getting an immediate couture replacement from paris:

serena didn't wear a cap. just her tassle tied in her hair. plus 2.

jenny's hair is hideous. this is nothing new, just accurate. plus 3.

jenny's ban on headbands. plus 10.

eleanor prepping blair to win chuck. touching and accurate. plus 15.

of course chuck traveled to europe to get all of blair's favorite things to present to her when he tells her he loves her. plus 20.

the gay boys hacked into GG and don't know her IP address? minus 50, because computer hackers are usually neither that gay nor that cute and would definitely know how to track someone down that they had hacked into so thoroughly.

because it needs repeating, rufus humphrey can't afford yale, but he can afford nyu? the most expensive school in the world? minus 20.

even with his money back dan chooses nyu over yale, his dream school? minus 10.

since when is serena looking for her dad? and she could hire a PI and get that info fast without sketchy carter. minus 5.

lily would never openly disclose her relationship status in public, even to eleanor. minus 5.

serena's plan to expose gossip girl ends with all the kids together at the oak room.minus 20, because that's pretty queer and it would definitely be at buddha bar or something like that.

um, georgina is going to gallatin? fyi - you canNOT just show up at the bursar's office and say oh hi i want this person as my roommate. minus 30.

predictions about next season:

ok so obviously all the kids have to stay in new york, so my current guess is that serena finds out her dad is a professor at nyu and ends up attending, as well. (you know, to get close to him, 'cause that's what college is for.) or maybe it'll be up at columbia, so that nate won't be the lonely little petunia uptown alone. unless chuck ends up going to columbia to hang with nate or nyu to be with blair. goergina and blair will come up with all sorts of schemes to destroy each other's clean slate reputations at nyu, but will end up befriending each other. i hope and pray for more eric plotlines next season.

Thursday, 5 March 2009

so this week's episode of LOST was relatively mind-blowing. i know my friends and i had been grappling with the 3-year time difference between the events happening in the real world and the events happening on the island, and last night's episode started to answer our burning questions.